They’re crafty: Meet four local makers

They’re crafty

Meet some local artists and makers who participated in Moab’s Holiday Craft Fair

Written by Rachel Fixsen

MOAB TREASURES ITS HOLIDAY TRADITIONS. EACH YEAR THE MAYOR PRESIDES OVER THE LIGHTING OF THE TOWN CHRISTMAS TREE IN SWANNY CITY PARK. ILLUMINATED FLOATS ROLL SLOWLY THROUGH DOWNTOWN, CHEERED BY BUNDLED-UP CROWDS AT THE ANNUAL ELECTRIC LIGHT PARADE. AND OVER AT THE MOAB ARTS AND RECREATION CENTER ON THE FIRST WEEKEND IN DECEMBER, ARTISTS AND MAKERS SET UP SHOP WITH THEIR UNIQUE PRODUCTS AT THE HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR.

“This is something people have said they look forward to each year,” says Kelley McInerney, arts and special events director for the Moab Arts and Recreation Center (MARC). This year over 40 vendors brought a variety of handmade work—woodcarving and turning, jewelry, pottery, paintings, prints, soaps, leatherwork, and more—for shoppers to browse. Food vendors in the side-yard at the MARC offered hot drinks and treats. But the fair’s not just about finding holiday gifts—both vendors and shoppers also enjoy bumping into acquaintances and catching up with friends and neighbors. Meet a few of the makers who participated this year:

Casey Montandon

[Photo by Emily Klarer]

Moab local Casey Montandon was inspired to start working with leather when he was on a trip in Colorado with his wife, Emily Klarer.

“I had bought a new wallet and belt and I was like, ‘I’m pretty sure I could do this,’” he says. He was scheduled to have knee surgery soon and knew he would need a hobby to pass the time while he recovered, so he ordered some instructional books, tools and materials, watched some YouTube videos, and started experimenting. For about a year, he made things for himself, friends and family, as he honed his skills and found what worked. Friends would request specific items, and he would set out to learn how to make what they wanted.

“People ask me, ‘hey, can you do this?’ and I’m like, I can figure it out!” Montandon says. He’s learned to make custom items like knife sheaths and phone cases, and specific styles of tote bags.

“That’s been fun, to find the right styles that people are into,” he says.

Eventually, the owner of MoabMade, a Main Street shop that sells items made by area artists and craftspeople and also had a booth at the craft fair, suggested that Montandon sell some of his work in the store. That went well, so last year he registered to participate in the Holiday Craft Fair. It was the first time he’d sold his work in that format.

“It’s different to watch people look it over,” he says. At MoabMade, he doesn’t observe first-hand while people shop.

“When you have your booth, you interact with everyone, and you watch them go through everything you handmade,” he says. That experience can make an artist feel vulnerable, but, Montandon added, it’s also valuable feedback. This year he focused on creating things that people liked a lot last year, such as leather pot grips.

“They make really nice gifts,” he says. He also makes backpacks, tote bags, key chains, wallets and purses. In some pieces, he accents natural leather colors with a bright panel of dyed leather.

Aside from finding out what people like best and selling his work, Montandon enjoys the social side of the craft fair. Vendors set up near each other last year looked forward to meeting again this year, he says. He also enjoys catching up with familiar faces among the shoppers.

“It’s a social time where you get to see everyone in town,” he says.

Montandon still sells his leatherwork at MoabMade on Main Street and through his Instagram page, @caseywademade.

[Photos courtesy of Annie Dalton]

Annie Dalton

Annie Dalton grew up around ceramics: her mother was a potter. Dalton remembers first learning to throw clay on a wheel when she was around 12 years old. She pursued the craft further as she grew up, taking classes in high school and studying ceramics in college (focusing on hand-built, sculptural work), along with textiles and biochemistry. All those disciplines inform her work as an artist now. She “geeks out,” she says, on the chemistry of glazes in ceramics, and the techniques and principles she learned while studying textiles inspire the finishes on her pottery as well as on her designs in mediums other than clay.

Dalton has participated in the craft fair on and off for about 10 years, but this is the first year in which she was committed to being a full-time artist.

“It’s exhilarating!” she says.

She brought some new things to her booth this year: in addition to ceramics, she had stickers and postcards with designs she created with hand-carved linoleum block prints, and “smoke charms” made of bundled dried herbs. She’s also branching out within the medium of clay by making jewelry, something she’s excited about.

“It’s the newest thing for me to try my hand at,” she says. She also had drinking vessels, bowls, trays and ornaments for sale.

Dalton enjoys the intimacy and the “locals” vibe at the craft fair. Her family has been in Moab for generations, and she says she meets shoppers who were friends with her parents or grandparents—some who remember her when she was a little girl. Some tell her they have pieces made by her mother.

“I’ve had a number of people that are happy to see the tradition being carried on,” Dalton says.

Dalton also sells her pottery at MoabMade; her work is also featured on her website, moabvarnishstudio.com, and her Instagram account, @moabvarnish.

Cathy O’Connor [Photo by Murice D. Miller]

[Photos courtesy of Desert Thread]

Cathy O’Connor and Rosie Boone

Sisters Cathy O’Connor and Rosie Boone first sold their handmade yarn and textile items at the Holiday Craft Fair in 2006, just before they opened their yarn shop, Desert Thread. O’Connor says she’s always liked making things with her hands, and she and her sister grew up learning about textiles.

“We come from a long line of seamstresses—by the time we were 7 were on sewing machines—so it’s in our bloodlines,” O’Connor says. Later she got interested in weaving and knitting; she also spins her own yarn, though the downtown shop sells lots of varieties of both commercial and hand-spun yarn.

O’Connor says the craft fair hasn’t changed much in the many years they’ve participated, except that now there are more vendors than there used to be.

“It’s a fun event,” O’Connor says. “It kind of gets everyone in the spirit of the holidays and the winter.” She echoed other vendors who say it’s a very social tradition.

“We see people there every year who don’t come into the store,” she says.

She and Boone stocked up on felt acorn ornaments—a recurring favorite with shoppers, some of whom, O’Connor says, come to the fair looking for them specifically. They also had Christmas ornaments, knitted hats, felted beverage cozies, and other felted items like pincushions and bookmarks. Some years the sisters also sell skeins of their hand-spun yarn.

O’Connor’s and Boone’s work, along with a wide selection of yarn, can be found at the Desert Thread shop at 29 East Center Street.

McInerney says locals really enjoyed a new element of the fair this year when the Moab BEACON Afterschool middle school strings club performed while attendees browsed.

She is already looking forward to next year’s fair, and largely takes an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it approach.” People like the tradition of the fair, she says, so she’s striving to maintain its familiar vibe.

“It’s mostly the same that it has been,’ McInerney says. “We’ve tried to keep the basic integrity” that everyone has come to know and love. n